Friday, November 30, 2007

22 Joseph is a fruitful vine,a fruitful vine near a spring,whose branches climb over a wall.

23 With bitterness archers attacked him;they shot at him with hostility.

24 But his bow remained steady,his strong arms stayed limber,because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25 because of your father's God, who helps you,because of the Almighty, who blesses youwith blessings of the heavens above,blessings of the deep that lies below,blessings of the breast and womb.

Perhaps you have heard the Hebrew words "El Shaddai" before -- maybe because of the Amy Grant song by that title. The usual translation is "Almighty God" but "shaddai" also means "all sufficient" and it is from a root that means "breast". God nurtures us as a mother nurtures her newborn.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The latest installment of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly has a story on Sara Miles, who runs the food bank at St. Gregory Nyssen in San Francisco—a ministry that is more than full time. A couple of years ago she was a strident atheist and a journalist who first walked in the door because she was curious about what was going on inside. She found a community that feeds people, at the altar on Sundays and at a meal with sack of groceries on Fridays, no questions asked. She reports her first experience like this: “And then a woman put a piece of fresh bread in my hand and gave me a goblet of some rather nasty, sweet wine. And I ate the bread and was completely thunderstruck by what I felt happening to me. So I stood there crying, completely unsure of what was happening to me. Got out of the church as quickly as I could before some strange, creepy Christian would try to chat with me, and came back the next week because I was hungry, and kept coming back and kept coming back to take that bread.”

It was the lack of judgment that invited her into that community, where she continues to feed people herself. She goes on to say, “I think what I discovered in that moment when I put the bread in my mouth and was so blown away by the reality of Jesus was that the requirement for faith turned out not to be believing in a doctrine, or knowing how to behave in church, or being the right kind of person, or being raised correctly, or repeating the rituals. The requirement for faith seemed to be hunger. It was the hunger that I had always had and the willingness to be fed by something I didn’t understand.”

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Abba Poemen said of Abba John the Dwarf that he had prayed God to take his passions away from him so that he might become free from care. He went and told an old man this; 'I find myself in peace, without an enemy,' he said. The old man said to him, 'Go beseech God to stir up warfare so that you may regain the affliction and humility that you used to have, for it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.' So he besought God and when warfare came, he no longer prayed that it might be taken away, but said, 'Lord, give me strength for the fight.'

Monday, November 26, 2007

I found an interesting blog today authored by Brian and Emily Miller who are youth ministers at a church in Colorado. Here is a posting I liked very much:

We used this prayer for meditation during the first 30 minutes of youth group last week. Each line of the prayer was put on screen for a few minutes and students/leaders were encouraged to dwell on the words and on God, or ignore the words if needed and sit in silence. It benefitted us immensely, so we wanted to share it with anyone who might also enjoy it.

THANK YOUyour graceyour loveyour sacrificeyour faithfulness

I LOVE YOUyour beautyyour mysteryyour presenceyour heart

FORGIVE MEmy indifferencemy pridemy rebellionmy infidelity

They also posted the following quote:

The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all.

Friday, November 23, 2007

I was very fortunate and blessed to hear Henri Nouwen speak back in the 70s. He came across as utterly genuine, utterly authentic. Here's something he wrote that we would all do well to heed:

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it , and for a moment I lost myself - actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way.

And several other times in my life, when I was swimming far out, or lying alone on a beach, I have had the same experience. Become the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a rock, swaying in the tide. Like a saint's vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see - and seeing the secret, are the secret. For a second there is meaning!

O'Neill is attempting to give words to the mystical experience which is, of course, ineffable. But still there is this painting, as it were, this struggle to offer a picture of what it is like. And, to the very great blessing of humankind, many saints and artists have tried to show us - and not only to show us but to draw us in. Deo gratias!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

If ever we are tempted to neglect our prayers, we might do well to read these words:

Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, and archangels throng around, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with heaven's dread Sovereign! O, what honor was ever conferred like this?

Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought. And then we send all the faculties of the soul after it, thinking we are lost, and have misused the time that we are spending in the presence of God. Yet the soul may perhaps be wholly united with Him in the Mansions very near His presence, while thought remains in the outskirts of the castle, suffering the assaults of a thousand wild and venomous creatures and from this suffering winning merit. So this must not upset us, and we must not abandon the struggle, as the devil tries to make us do. Most of these trials and times of unrest come from the fact that we do not understand ourselves.

The mind thinks. That is what it does. In the same way, the eye sees and the ear hears. It is not necessary to suppress thoughts. It is, however, important to bring the mind back to the contemplation of Divine reality whenever we realize we have become distracted.

Friday, November 16, 2007

There's a wonderful wesite that you really should know about. It's called Spirituality and Practice and it's just full of resources for the kind of integrated devotional life that affects everything we do.

One of the practices we are urged to cultivate is reverence. Here's how the basic practice is described:

Reverence is the way of radical respect. It recognizes and honors the presence of the sacred in everything — our bodies, other people, animals, plants, rocks, the earth, and the waters. It is even an appropriate attitude to bring to our things, since they are the co-creations of humans and the Creator.

Nothing is too trivial or second class for reverence. But it has to be demonstrated with concrete actions. Don't abuse your body — eat right, exercise, get enough rest. Don't abuse the earth by being wasteful of its gifts. Protect the environment for your neighbors and future generations.

Reverence is also a kind of radical amazement, a deep feeling tinged with both mystery and wonder. Approaching the world with reverence, we are likely to experience its sister — awe. Allow yourself to be moved beyond words.

I like the words "radical amazement". Such an amazement is a powerful antidote to the pernicious ennui that has infected so many in our day. It is a way of being fully alive.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

"In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it."

We often forget that fundamentalism is quite a recent development in the history of Christian thought and that the ancients did not necessarily interpret Scripture literally. Rather they tended to use the allegorical or metaphorical approach.

Quite a number of years ago, someone gave me a prayer on a little card that seemed just right for me. I was deeply moved by it and taped it to a bookcase in my office so that I could see it often. Then on Monday, while I was preparing the first post of this blog, I came across it on line. Here's the prayer:

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

What has made this book such an enduring and popular work is that it recognizes how important solitude is to our morality, integrity, and ability to love. One does not have to be a monk to find solitude, notes Merton; solitude can be found in the act of contemplation and silent reflection in everyday life. Also, this is not a pious book that assumes that a relationship with the divine can be obtained only by denying our humanity and striving for saintliness. Instead, Merton asserts that connection with God can most easily be made through "respect for temperament, character, and emotion and for everything that makes us human."

Sadly, a lot of common approaches to Christian formation do suggest that we need to deny our humanity in order to please God. Of course, paradoxically, that has the effect of making us more self-conscious rather than less. Making friends with ourselves is an important first step on the spiritual path. Think about it. Why would we give a self that we hate as an offering to God? I actually like that old T-shirt that says, "God doesn't make junk". So do remember this wonderful saying of Irenaeus: "The glory of God is the human being fully alive!"

During the forum, Tutu discussed how his nation was able to heal and forgive after years of apartheid.

“To forgive is not being altruistic. It's the best form of self-interest,” he said. “When I dehumanize you, I am, in the process, dehumanized.”

Tutu discussed the healing process in South Africa after apartheid and how things could have gone better, but how they could have been much worse. With an overwhelming sense of reason, he talked about the work of fellow South African and civil rights leader Nelson Mandela, and how Mandela's time in jail was necessary in South Africa's healing process.

“In 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela evolved from an angry young man to (gain) an understanding of the point of view of the other,” he said, calling those 27 years “crucial.”...But what many were taking away from the day's celebration and were discussing once the day's events concluded were Tutu's words before the service.

“In our African culture, there is ... the essence of being human: a person is a person through other persons,” he said. “I need you to be all you can be, so I can be all I can be.”

Because of my years in South Africa, I know the African word for what Archbishop Tutu is saying here. It is ubuntu. I love this word. It basically says that we're all in it together.

Of course, it was also Thomas Merton who said, "The only thing to remember about prayer is to begin where you are." So, wherever you are, begin right now. Remembering to begin anew every day is the key to the kind of spiritual practice that will sustain us throughout our lives - no matter what happens.